Disney World Trip, June 19-23, 2000Account written by Matt Huber, Director, Brazil Concert Band and Jackson Township BandPhotos by Melanie Huber and Linda Steppe

Our June 18 concert before we left for Florida. Our uniforms were already packed!

The Brazil Concert Band was accepted to play at Walt Disney World in the summer of 1999. The band had played in Washington, D.C. the previous year and had such a great time that the members desired to once again travel together. Only this time, we decided to tour more and perform less, and instead of taking the bus, we flew!

Melanie Huber once again coordinated the trip which was two years in the making. She contracted our flight through International Tours of Terre Haute who booked us on an early morning flight with ATA. Ninety-nine musicians, friends, and family were aboard a giant Lockheed L-1011 jet, which has capacity for well over 400 passengers, and this one was full. We flew out of Indianapolis International Airport at 7:50 a.m. on June 19th, 2000 and arrived at Orlando International Airport at 10:45 a.m. Florida time.

Two Mears passenger coaches and an equipment truck met us at the airport. In fact, a lady from Mears was holding one of those little signs which read "Welcome Brazil Band" as she directed us toward luggage pickup. Everyone got their bags except for Jim and Doris Pell and Shelley and Jay Criss. The Criss's was eventually delivered to the hotel and the Pells, as of this writing, are still waiting! Fortunately, no band instruments were lost or damaged. That's another part of the story!

We wasted no time loading our belongings; after all, we were on our way to Disney World! We arrived at our destination in about thirty minutes. The band stayed at Disney's All-Star Music Resort -a most fitting place for such an all-star group of musicians! Unlike Washington, most of the rooms were ready and we piled our luggage into readied rooms and into the rooms of some of our people who chose to drive and were not yet in Florida.